


Obscural!Newt

by ABJ



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: ...the plot bunny attacked, Dammit it!, Emotional Abuse, Gen, Obscural!Newt, it was meant to be a short prompt, please someone expand on this, this is not a complete story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 07:36:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8615287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ABJ/pseuds/ABJ
Summary: There are other ways for obscurals to form than being hunted by muggles. Pureblood Newt Scamander comes to fear his magic before he ever gets the chance to use it.(Not a complete story. Just a plot bunny posted in hopes someone with more talent and dedication will finish it)





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be a nice and short little prompt but everything changed when the plot bunny attacked. (In my defense it had teeth. And _ideas_.)
> 
> Stuff in brackets is what Newt has heard from others or is telling himself.

Newt comes from a well respected pureblood family that lives in their ancestral home which happens to have a large forest encroaching on their grounds. He begins to take an interest in magical beasts from a very young age. It does not always go well; he’s a young child and whilst few of the creatures ever mean harm things like bones, windows and family heirlooms tend to be rather fragile. Coming home more than once covered in scrapes and carrying something with too many teeth for any sane person to be comfortable with the joke begins to pass around that it might be better if Newt didn’t have magic as he causes enough destruction without it. But like many parents Mr. and Mrs. Scamander dismiss Newt’s interest as a phase and assume it will fade over time.

It doesn’t.

After a few too many incidents involving serious injury and costly losses caused by Newt’s “friends” the joke isn’t told as a joke anymore. It becomes something that’s muttered under his mother’s breath when she sees Great Aunt Angelica’s portrait ripped by talons, taunted by his brother when he doesn’t have anyone other than creatures to invite to his birthday, yelled by his father when he has to be taken to Saint Mungos with a broken arm _for the third time this week Newt! Don’t you know what this does to my reputation!_

( _It would be better if Newt didn’t have magic. It would be better if Newt didn’t have magic! IT WOULD BE BETTER IF NEWT DIDN’T HAVE MAGIC!_ )

And like any impressionable young child, Newt begins to believe them. He pushes his magic down; he’s destructive enough as it is (you can ask anyone, they’ll all tell you about the strange young Scamander boy) and he can get by without it just fine. His creature friends don’t mind and they’re the only ones who matter to him. If anything the wild magic that sometimes seeps out attracts them.

\---

Unlike most other obscurals the suppression of Newt’s magic isn’t done wholely out of some form of self loathing so his magic doesn’t turn on him and while he has become slightly estranged from his family he does care for them deeply and he has no desire to lash out at them. Though he rarely leaves the grounds his childhood is actually rather pleasant all things considered so while he pushes his magic down anytime he feels it stir (he’s destructive enough, ask anyone. And he doesn’t need it anyway!) there’s nothing to provoke it to tear free in the way that tends to kill obscurals. While there is the odd slip Newt always manages to rein it in (destructive boy! He doesn’t need it!) and the incidents are simply assumed to be somewhat violent bouts of accidental magic.

But then Newt’s Hogwarts invitation fails to arrive.

His parents throw a fit, except in the way they don’t as that would be _undignified_. What they do is cause enough fuss and push Newt into enough experimental (read: risky and potentially dangerous) tests to detect magic to get him a fancy certificate saying that some unnamed illness has prevented the proper manifestation of his magic but it is there and he is NOT a squib. (The term ‘obscural’ is never brought up. That one healer who suggested it was clearly incompetent and her quick sacking entirely deserved.)

So Newt goes to Hogwarts where he is promptly outcast for his lack of “proper” magic, everyone knowing he wouldn’t be there if his parents weren’t rich and influential (gossip travels fast, even more so when the one spreading it is his popular, perfect in every way, Gryffindor brother) . He does manage to make his first (and only) human friend: Leta LeStrange, who has just as much trouble fitting in due to her family’s reputation that she seems all too happy to live up to. The Slytherin girl becomes extremely attached to her only friend and protects him from the worst of the bullying and he gains the sympathy of the transfiguration professor Albus Dumbledore, who keeps an eye out for him so while his situation is bad it’s manageable (as good as someone as destructive as him can hope for.)

So Newt slogs through his school years, failing dismally at wand work but with high enough marks in herbology, potions, and astronomy that his stay is able to be justified to the school board (there is no Care of Magical Creatures class, much to Newt’s displeasure). It’s something of a public secret that he is constantly sneaking out to the Forbidden Forest but those who know are either unable to stop him or are part of the majority that hope “the squib will finally get himself killed. It would serve him right, the little weirdo.”

This relative calm continues up to fifth year when puberty has well and truly kicked in. Newt hasn’t changed but Leta has; she’s become pretty enough that people are willing to overlook her wild personality. Put plainly, she has the chance to be the popular kid. That is, of course, if she drops the freaky ‘puff that clings to her shadow. As a Slytherin Leta is aware of the nature of politics even if she rarely uses them. She casts Newt loose in the most public setting possible, causing maximum humiliation without so much as a warning to Newt to ensure the most honest reaction. What she didn’t count on was Newt’s obscuras seeing the chance to break free in the wake of Newt’s devastation. He manages to rein it in before it kills her but the whole of Hogwarts just saw something spread from Newt and attack Leta. (obscuras are hardly common knowledge in these _progressive_ times and it just isn’t possible for one to come from such a well respected family as the Scamanders).

Nobody wants to admit there is an obscural in their midst and Newt’s fascination with magical beasts is common enough knowledge that no one questions it when he is expelled for possessing one even when no creature can be found. Due to his parents influence no further action is taken but the Scamander couple go into damage control mode; they invest in quite the attractive case hoping that Newt will gather up a few of “his little pets” and stay in there with them. Unsurprisingly Newt is not as excited about this plan as his parents are. After much arguing he takes the case with him under the agreement that he shall not set foot on British soil again and they will not lend their help to him any further.

And so Newt’s travels begin.

**Author's Note:**

> ...so can someone please steal this thing and actually finish it?
> 
> And can anyone tell me if a kink meme has been set up for this fandom yet?


End file.
